Inside the world of a London media entrepreneur

With newspaper circulation in the UK consistently falling, and newspaper profits falling off cliffs, its time for UK news websites to start creating revenue for their owners - and quickly.

News International are introducing a paywall to their websites, starting with the Sunday Times. They are now asking people to register for a preview. All the other national newspaper proprietors are biding their time, and most will follow as soon as they see success.

Its vital that their companies respect the internet and the vast differences that their online customers have from their print ones.

There seems to be a common belief within these companies that its good enough to offer web visitors exactly the same content that is printed in the newspaper, often reproduced without the accompanying pictures in order to save money.

There's another misconception that growing visitor numbers can be driven simply by securing and publishing exclusive news content.

That is certainly one way to bring people to a website. However, in my experience, its usually the same major breaking news stories that enjoy the Most Viewed spot on all the British paper sites at the same time. Stories like Michael Jackson's death nearly overwhelmed the internet because they drove unprecedented traffic. Every site had that story, and it was the event itself that mattered and not the individual sites.

The biggest winners from the death of Jacko were US entertainment site TMZ.com, who spent a ton of money on buying and publishing exclusive content and used the fact that they broke the story as a huge, live marketing exercise.

However I'm not sure if that investment resulted in a like for like revenue increase. Sites that spent nothing got huge traffic increases too.

It does seem that some UK newspaper sites have realised they need to start targeting the new generation in a way that resonates with 18 year olds (heavy web users), not pensioners (newspaper buyers).

The Daily Mirror have recently moved the game on by skipping a few generations on their websites and carving out separate identities for the most successful online parts of their paper - http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk and http://www.3am.co.uk

What's interesting is that both these sites' content is often markedly different from the printed version of the Mirror.

The online version of 3am is full of swearing and sex. Its more like listening to a group of girls on an 18-30 holiday transfer bus than reading the nation's third most popular family newspaper.

mirrorfootball.co.uk is more traditional, but uses its correspondents like @johncrossmirror to update fans as they step out of press conferences, and during games via twitter. The internet generation is used to a flow of information, not one read per 24 hours, so this new approach is important. It puts them up against Sky Sports and ESPN Soccernet.

Its great that Trinity have started to invest some of their good people into their sites and to treat their new customers with respect. Instead of simply posting all the stories from their printed edition each evening, they have taken a real step forward which will do them no harm at all.

The three keys to keeping people connected with any information website are 1. The brand, 2. The social network and 3. The extra offer

By making sure that once surfers come into a site that they recognise and identify with a brand, you have a far, far higher chance of them returning next time they are looking for something similar.

By letting them interact with other people who also identify with the same brand, you give them a social communication opportunity that engages them on a much more involved level.

By offering people tickets to exclusive events, free downloads and amazing discounts, you can create a reason to come back to the site regardless of whether or not its a busy news day.

Because we have traditionally given away everything online for free, nobody expects to spend money for information online. At present, the main things that create money online are sex, financial information and shops. These things, in the analogue age equated to procreation, making money and hunting. Three fundamentals of human existence. Thats how storng the urge has to be to spend money online. Its a big old ask.

Its about time that the powers-that-be at the UK newspaper groups bring in execs from Amazon, Facebook and Google. They are the companies that have no history to worry about. Their execs have thrived in the internet age, and understand exactly how to make money in the online world. Its a big ask to expect experienced and accomplished journalists to create and manage financially successful online worlds. They are not the same thing.

Combining journalistic talent of the highest order with hot executives who know how to monetize the online world is the way forward. Lets hope that the paywalls work and that we all benefit from the next phase of this adventure.

06/01/2010

According to the Wall Street Journal (a news organisation), Being a photographer or a journalist is one of the worst jobs in the world. (via Richard Humphries).

Their new report states that the best job in America is as an Actuary. Photojournalist is ranked at number 189 out of 200, and Newspaper Reporter only a little higher at 184.

Supposedly the report is based on five criteria -- environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands and stress.

This survey rates newspaper work as more crappy than:

157

CORRECTION OFFICER

165

NUCLEAR PLANT DECONTAMINATION TECHNICIAN

169

CARPET INSTALLER

178

DRILL-PRESS OPERATOR

Hell, even stirring shit for a living rates higher:

117

SEWAGE PLANT OPERATOR

This is the largest load of rubbish I've ever heard.

If you're lucky enough to work for a national newspaper in the UK for a decade or two you will have enough life experience to fill many volumes of your memoirs. You're likely to meet world leaders, work in war zones, dine with movie stars, come face to face with incredible animals and travel the world a good few times over.

As a photojournalist, you sit down with friends to discuss the week gone by and feel reluctant even to open your mouth. To tell them that you spent the week actually involved in all the things that they had to watch on the TV or listen to on the radio feels like boasting.

As Rupert Murdoch once said, being a newspaper journalist is the best job in the world. Strange that his own website puts list together that is so contradictory.

It does seem like they are reinventing the wheel - digital magazine Monkey from Dennis Publishing has been around for years now.

The companies plan to sell their versions of their publications to consumers through an iTunes type of online store.

This clearly offers an amazing opportunity to start halting the decline in magazine sales. It also offers the vast network of media suppliers - such as freelance journalists and photographers and photo agencies some hope of new money in a fiercely tough market.

Although this computer doesn't publicly exist, the companies are pumping millions of dollars into building software that they hope will allow them to cash in from online spending. Although it will initially be about magazines, the final, as yet unnamed, product will work for online websites and books too.

So why are these famously online skeptical companies now scrambling, a decade late, to jump headfirst into the market?

After years of bumper profits, its crunch time in the publishing houses. Instead of launching new titles, which is what they all did earlier this decade, the business is all about closures.

One MD of a UK magazine publisher told me recently that he felt that there were far too many magazines out there, and that a reduction of 40% in terms of numbers of titles was a realistic expectation in the coming years.

Now the tide has turned, the magazine players are determined to make big money from the shift in consumer spending, which is clearly away from paper and towards screens.

Content providers are also putting plans in place. A group of influential independent photo agencies in the USA are already working together to prepare for what they see as a great chance to expand their marketplace.

Many media companies acted like this ten years ago and invested lots of time, money and energy into publishing their content online. The huge mistake was that they gave their content away, believing that a buoyant advertising market would pay all the bills and then some.

However, with no bar to entry, every Tom Dick and Harriet could build and run a website. Therefore, advertisers could pick and choose from millions of different places to spend their money, rather than a tight group of newspapers and magazines. The nature of the internet allowed them to only pay by results - click throughs - rather than by space rates.

Consumers were taught to expect amazing content for free. And now the publishers are desperate to claw some revenue back.

We need to hope that the iTablet - or whatever Apple call it - is indeed a massive success, and that huge magazine brands like Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone, Wired etc are a big enough draw to coax online buyers to part with their cash.

By working together, these huge corporations are trying to ensure that the market doesn't pull itself apart by wasting millions on all doing similar things at once. Now that the Media sector is in crisis, another big mistake doesn't bear thinking about.

Lord Coe, who knows a thing or two about successful bids, has even been parachuted in to try and sort things out.

One of the biggest powers within the FIFA delegates, Jack Warner, says that England's bid team members are"lightweight".

Lord Triesman, who chairs the team, only bothers to work on the bid part-time. And now Sir Dave Richards, the Chairman of the Premier League has had enough of the whole thing and resigned.

These people do not realise quite how seriously their inability to conduct themselves in a professional manner impacts upon England.

England have gone from being in a very strong position to being third favourites.

Holding the World Cup in England would be the best thing to happen to football here in 50 years, and these wealthy individuals seem to be putting their own egos ahead of the enjoyment of millions of sports fans.

In the midst of the worst recession for fifty years and with unemployment rocketing, the average Brit needs every bit of positive news they can get. Not to mention the billions of pounds boost to the British economy that hosting the Championships would generate.

Even if they can't stand each other, they MUST present a united and professional front. They are creating a PR and media disaster. So lets hope someone takes charge, gets this lot in a room, bangs some heads together and gets this sorted out, quickly.

Otherwise a whole generation will miss out on the biggest show on earth.

23/11/2009

So Katie Price, AKA Jordan, has upped and left I'm a Celebrity... because she got fed up with having to do Bush Tucker Trials.

ITV must have been licking their lips as tens of thousands of viewers spent their hard earned cash on phone votes, desperate to watch Katie put through the mill again in yet another disgusting bush tucker trial. They must be pretty fed up that she has left - although its likely she had a clause whereby ITV reduced her fee for walking out.

She's now back at the very lovely Versace Hotel, awaiting her boyfriend Alex Reid and no doubt beating away (for today) ludicrously large sums of money from the glossies to tell all about her "jungle hell".

When she was asked by a US based interviewer what she did recently, she couldn't really explain how she had become famous in the UK.

Well I think I know.

People love to see someone from an average background become successful. It makes them believe that anything is possible, and that their life could be magically transformed into a celebrity fairy tale. They are happy to buy products associated with a 'girl dun good'.

However, their own reality is very different. The same people that love celebrities then go and have a bad day at work, realise that nothing ever changes and, lo and behold, decide to cheer themselves up by hating a celebrity instead.

Its nice to let your frustrations out at somebody, especially when they look and act in an outrageous manner, and especially when you have zero chance of ever meeting them.

Its just like pantomime.

And its what has happened to Jordan.

What's funny is that she seems genuinely upset about her public and how they have turned against her.

20/11/2009

It wasn't that long ago that anyone with a VCR, Video game machine and music system in their living room had to devote a large amount of floor and shelf space to bulky metal boxes and miles of cable.

Soon however, all that entertainment grunt will be served up in one small plastic box.

Currently, most people in the UK get their TV signal one of three ways - either via cable, satellite or via freeview.

But with yesterday's announcement that you will be able to watch HD movies via your PS3, its now surely only a matter of months before a new breakthrough machine is unveiled that offers TV, internet, music, radio, movies and games - both on demand and from storage.

Imagine for a moment you are the new head of ITV. You've never worked in the media before, and your last job was running a discount supermarket.

Well Archie, you can forget about the price of rice.

The golden rule in your new job: All that matters is getting the best viewing figures possible.

So here's a short guide to telly ratings gold:

1. Forget amazing costume dramas, incredible documentaries and even world class sporting events. If you want to get bumper audiences, get a retired cricket player to stumble abound a TV studio trying to Cha-cha-cha.

2. Or if you're desperate for record numbers of viewers, round up some spotty stage school kids and have them belt out your granny's favourite karaoke tunes. Badly.

3. You could even get celebrities whose careers haven't yet begun to eat insects whilst trying to out-mince each other round the camp fire.

4. You will need to ensure the voting system for contestants doesn't allow the public to get the final say on who gets voted out. Let them think they are in charge (telephone voting brings in huge revenues), but make sure the judges can save the act that they actually want to keep in. Pure democracy really doesn't work on the TV.

5. Finally, NEVER EVER make the mistake of letting any of your contestants be people that are actually brilliant at whatever the talent contest is supposed to be about. How many people actually watch professional ball room dancing on the TV? Or world championship Ice Dancing?

What viewers actually want from these shows is to love and hate characters. They all feel they know the people involved in the shows; they want to imagine that these events are actually round the corner in their village hall and that by spending 35p on a phone call they have some control over events.

Viewers love the feeling of community that is generated by these amazingly clever - and simple - shows. They would all love a cup of tea with Brucie, or a night out with Cheryl and the girls.

They love them in the same way that only the Brits can love Panto at Christmas.

Maybe the fact that they are all sat in watching TV at home on weekend evenings means that they can't get out to meet friends, be part of their local community or watch a cabaret at their local theatre.

As long as the broadcasters don't jump the shark and continue to keep the formats simple, they are on to a winner.

ITV is the spiritual home of council telly. Its cheap, cheerful and full of fun. The only thing that will keep the punters happy - and the viewing numbers high - is more of the same.

19/11/2009

In a world of angst and worry, it was traditionally the job of the UK media to tell us how bad things were.

Papers and TV news were all about how high unemployment was, how difficult things felt and that we were all doomed.

However, during the current recession it seems the mainstream news media has changed its approach.

Across all spectrums of the news agenda editors are searching out good news stories rather than bad.

They are only too aware that the public is now using news just as much for entertainment and escape as they are for information.

The demand our companies get for happy, bright news far outweighs any demand for investigations or analysis of current events.

The former picture editor of the Daily Mirror told me eleven years ago that his paper was turning into "A TV magazine". If you look at the column inches across all newspapers devoted to X-Factor, I'm a Celebrity and Strictly Come Dancing you'd have to say that he was correct.

The first rule of business is to respond to demand.

Our job as content providers is therefore to make sure that our clients get the stories, pictures and video they want.

And whilst that demand continues to be for bright, inspiring and escapist content, we're only too happy to oblige.

18/11/2009

I've decided that its time for me to stop talking to the walls of my office, as they remain largely unresponsive.

Instead I'll be logging my thoughts on the general state of the world's media as it tries to stop itself from imploding.

The British media sector is immersed its most exciting transition since the printing press was invented. More people are reading news, going to the cinema, listening to music and watching television in the UK than ever before.

However, due to the triple whammy of the digital revolution, the decline in newspaper readership and the global credit crunch, many people that work in the media are huddling in groups under tin helmets, desperate to avoid redundancy.

Whilst the raw panic that was omnipresent in newspapers and television stations a year ago has receded, it has only really turned into a horrible elephant in the room.

Newsrooms are full of staff with huge mortgages, huge credit card bills and huge stress levels.

To be creative and take advantage of all the opportunities that this moment offers, the media industry in the UK need two things. The first is optimism. The second is confidence.

News Corporation have realised that someone has to take a positive lead, and judging by the way that other European companies have followed their lead on charging for online content, they seem to have grabbed the role of the pied piper.

By all accounts, recent management structure changes that have taken place within the Murdoch HQ at Wapping seem both progressive and positive. Senior editorial figures remark that the new chief James Murdoch is able to grasp complicated concepts within minutes, offering input on projects quickly and cleverly. His forums where he delivers speeches to staff of all levels and encourages everyone to ask questions seem far more like something that you might expect at the Google HQ rather than in offices atop a printing plant.

It seems that JRM has grabbed the task of transforming News Corporation into a 21st century multi platform media empire with both hands.

With ex-Sun editor Rebekah Brooks now acting as the link between the titles and the board, the company now has the perfect link between its editorial engine room and its owners.

Where many of the other national newspaper publishers in the UK have only paid lip service to the digital revolution, News Limited have had the guts and self confidence to invest not only significant budget, but also inject some of their very best journalists into their online arm such as Pete Picton.

The success of dailymail.co.uk has also been largely down to the commitment of the Daily Mail's board to investing in quality editorial management. They have also consistently spent budget on content from freelancers and agencies, therefore ensuring that they get the most topical content with which to drive their incredible expansion in online readership numbers.

One thing that has always been evident within the newsroom at The Sun, News International's best selling daily, has been a huge team spirit. Despite some cuts in recent times, they have remained the agenda setting paper within the UK.

Despite the fact that Rupert Murdoch recently announced the death of newspapers, the great British public will still want cultural guidance from somewhere. This won't be in print, but it will probably come from print journalists.

By investing in their online brands and their core products, both the Daily Mail and The Sun are ensuring that whatever happens in the next decade, their brands will still be trusted to convey news and opinion.

Hopefully their lead in looking forwards rather than backwards will prove the lifebelt for other publishers who find themselves in deep and stormy waters.